Penny and her Group
Thank you Note

Dear Miss Nhu Y,

Thank you for arranging the Vietnam tour for us from the 17 Dec to 24 Dec.

We enjoyed ourselves tremendously and we truly appreciate your quick response to our feedback.
Thank you for the 3 star hotel you picked for us which far exceeded our expectation, and birthday party for our group.

We enjoyed the Chinese dinner, and the beautiful ancient style restaurants at Hue and Hoi Ann and our only regret is that we have not arranged for more shopping time.

I also wish to specially commend our tour guide in Hue and Hoi ann for his professionalism and also wish him happiness and success.


Thank You once again.


Cheers!

Penny and her Group

kmroberts
Thanks

To the management, TNK travel. (HCMC and Ha Noi)

Recently, I was one of a party of 4 people to visit Vietnam. Our bookings with your company were under the name of Mrs. Jane Rosemary Fowler & party. The "party" consisting of my wife and myself and Jane's husband, Barry.

Jane Fowler belongs to a group of Australian nurses who exchange places with Vietnamese nurses, in order to have an understanding of nursing conditions existing in both countries.

This was Jane's 2nd visit to Vietnam and we were to arrive at the end of her attachment and then go touring together. Jane, being "on-the-spot," was able to arrange hotel bookings for us and told us not to try and book any tours from Australia, as the nurses always used "An excellent local travel agent!" This being TNK!

Having now experienced the services provided by TNK, I must congratulate you on your organisation and agree that it is "Excellent" in all respects.

We enjoyed our tour to the Mekong Delta immensely,- with courier Dong.

The tour to Cau Dai and Cu Chi was just as good,- with courier "Slim Jim!"

In both cases, we were impressed to note that one of the girls from the office came out and stuck signs on the various buses' side windows,- telling which tour each bus was going on. This small touch made things much easier for couriers and passengers to sort themselves out. It is small touches like this that make a big difference to customers!

Special mention must be made of the service provided by Ms Nhu Y at HCMC office.

We had made a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see once we left HCMC and handed this to one of the girls in the office, she and 2 others looked at it and decided it needed someone with more experience and so we met Ms Nhu. She knew exactly what was needed and discussed everything with us and then told us to come back at 2:30pm to see the results of her labours! This was a Sunday and when we returned at 3pm, she was still hard at it. We later discovered, while talking to the office girls, that Ms Nhu was supposed to finish at 1pm! She was doing our itinerary and bookings in her own time and it was getting on for 5pm when we finished!!

Her hard work paid off, because everything went exactly to plan. She explained that not all tickets were on hand, but that everything we would need for onward travel would be e-mailed to us at the hotels she had booked for us. This worried us a bit initially, but it worked perfectly!!

She also explained that TNK's Ha Noi representative would contact us with tickets etc for our tours from Ha Noi and to Laos.

Mr Chung, at Ha Noi, came to our hotel. He went through our itinerary with us and made some excellent suggestions which we adopted with thanks. He said that we didn't want to be wandering around trying to get transport from the railway station at Lao Cai up to Sa Pa and he'd organise that and for the same taxy to collect us for the return trip later on. In due course, he escorted us to the station, led us to the train and our carriage and to our sleeping compartment. He would meet us at Ha Noi station on our return, take us back to our hotel for breakfast and make sure that our transport down to Ha Long arrived on time. When, a few days later, we arrived back from Ha Long, he came to our hotel and gave us our airline tickets for Laos and our vouchers for our hotels.

Both Ms Nhu and Mr Chung went above and beyond the normal course of duty to make our travels a smooth and hassle-free experience and we thank them for their efforts on our behalf.

You must be congratulated on your organisation as a whole. We hope that TNK remains a very successful business and does indeed look Towards the Next Millenium!!

Our regards. Mike and Kathleen Roberts. Corowa. Australia

The Kane family
A wonderful experience with TNK travel (January 2009)

Our family of 4 just came back from first ever trip to Vietnam (18 days). We chose TNK Travel and it was a great trip. I wanted to thank TNK and to share our experience with future prospective travelers.

We started the planning almost a year ago. I must say we were hesitant at first and concerned about choosing a reliable travel agency. I read a lot on the internet (e.g. tripadvisor .com) before identifying a few prospective travel agencies. I then asked for an initial quote from my top 3 choices. TNK was the middle quote but what I liked about them was the level of detail in their initial proposal. I then looked at their guestbook and selected 17 people worldwide who recently travelled with them and emailed each of them to ask about their experience. Every single one of them responded and all were very positive about TNK. This made me comfortable with the idea of having to send money upfront to book a trip in an unknown country where I would have no recourse if dealing with an unethical company. With TNK, everyone assured me that once an itinerary is finalized, the company will do whatever is needed to deliver on its promises and to make it a pleasant experience, and they sure did in our case.

Over the following month, I exchanged several emails with Mr. Dsung Trinh, the Managing Director, to modify the original proposal based on my research about the sites we wanted to see. For example, we removed Sapa from the itinerary because the Northwest is quite cold in January, but added Phu Quoc Island instead. In the end, we agreed on a price for the revised itinerary, and I paid the customary 30% deposit by credit card (with a 3% fee). From that point-on, I dealt with Mr. Dac Dahn in their operations department who always promptly answered my numerous enquiries via email, and sent me hotel vouchers and e-tickets confirmation from air travel within Vietnam, as well as the invitation letter for the Visa. Fast forwarding to the end of the year when our trip began:

We landed roughly on schedule in Hochiminh on Dec. 31st in the evening and had to wait an hour or so (not ideal after a long flight from the U.S.) to get our visa on arrival ($25 per person in cash). Once we exited immigration and customs, our guide (J.J.) and driver were there to greet us with a sign bearing our name. They took us to our hotel. Because of the traffic, we ended up being in the center of the city near the cathedral at midnight, surrounded by thousands of motorcycles ringing their horns when the near year arrived (quite a cultural experience). From there on, the entire trip was very pleasant (I will post details on the hotels on tripadvisor.com). We visited Saigon (and stopped by the TNK office to pay the balance of the trip), the Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc, PanThiet/Mui Ne, Da Lat and Nha Trang by private van and boats with J.J. (who was excellent, paying attention all the time to what we liked and making sure we would always have it). We almost missed the speedboat from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc, because the itinerary was 30 minutes off. As a result, we couldn’t have a scheduled lunch, but TNK compensated us with an excellent previously unplanned dinner in Hue. J.J. ordered a van with more legroom when we returned from Phu Quoc to HCMC (we flew back), arranged for a small canoe to pick-us up and take us to our hotel in Cantho where we were stuck in traffic on the way to the ferry, etc…Then we flew to Danang and were greeted by our new guide Tui (Mr. Dac Dahn had kindly arranged for French speaking guides at the other locations at our request), and from there visited Hoi An, My Son and Hue, Tui was excellent as well, very knowledgeable and helped us solve an issue we had with a tailor-made suit. In Hoi An, the reservation was not a river view room, but after contacting Mr. Dac Dahn generously agreed to pay the difference and we were upgraded accordingly (we had insisted on 2 deluxe rooms with sea/river/lake views everywhere) and I had not noticed it was not the case at that location. We then flew to Hanoi which we visited with our last guide (Mr. Lan, who was OK but not as good as the first 2), and went from there to Halong Bay for a memorable 2-day cruise, then flew back to HCMC, stayed overnight near the airport and had an early morning flight back to the U.S. On returning to HCMC, no driver was there to greet us, we were told after we called the agency that he was stuck in traffic due to an accident. We took a taxi to the nearby hotel, and the driver who picked-us up in the morning for our return flight to the US. reimbursed us more than we had actually paid for the taxi. We didn’t have to pay a departure tax, it was apparently already included in our plane tickets.

Overall, a great trip thanks to the logistics, efficiency and professionalism of the TNK staff and agents. Food was excellent (though too copious for us, we always have festive lunch menus booked by TNK with 6 or 7 courses in nice restaurants (included in the price), nice buffet breakfasts in most hotels. The only problem (which is beyond TNK’s control) was insufficient hot water in many hotels for two people to take showers one after the other), a really bad road with big holes when exiting MuiNe to go to Da Lat and a third guide in the north who took us to a number of expensive stores along the road when we saw much cheaper prices elsewhere (we suspect he had a kick-back from these stores (but to his credit, he advised us to see the anthropology museum in Hanoi instead of a couple of extra pagodas, which we really enjoyed). Other than these minor opportunities for improvement, we had great hotel rooms with very nice views (important to us), good weather, good food, good guides and drivers (who seemed satisfied with the tips we gave them), and we were taken to all the places agreed-to on the itinerary. For those who do not feel adventurous enough to be on their own in Vietnam, we do strongly recommend TNK travel as an ideal, reasonably-priced solution. You can count on them for a memorable and pleasant trip. One final comment, although you can pay everything in Vietnam in US dollars or Euros, prices are cheaper if you pay in Dongs (local currency, FX at 17.3 VND/USD on the average during our trip, calculated at 15 by the stores if you pay in USD). Also a word of caution, Vietnam Airlines only allows 20 kg for a checked suitcase and 7 kg for a carry-on so travel light……

If you are thinking of going and have any question about our experience, don’t hesitate to contact me at dkane@mmm.com.

Our sincere thanks to MM. Trinh, Danh and the entire TNK staff for a wonderful trip. The Kane family (Austin, TX, USA)

David Murray
Dear Dzung

Dear Dzung, Just a short note to thank you for the excellent trip you arranged for us during November of this year. All guides were excellent and the service your company provided was of the top order. Our only criticsm would be that some of the hotels provide standard, rather than superior rooms. On our next trip to your delightful country we will most definately call on your services but will use 4 star hotels. We will also recommend your agency to our many friends who I'm sure will be heading to Vietnam over the next few years.

Janis Lindblom
Return trip to HCMC

We have just returned from our second trip to Vietnam. This trip we only had 5 nights in HCMC and surrounding areas. We took two of our friends with us and again used the excellent services of TNK Travel and their fantastic team. Our tours were wonderful, our days flew by filled with great information, delightful eating experiences, wonderful sights and a truly amazing time was had by each one of us! Thank you TNK and we can't wait to return once again.

Peter C
An enjoyable experience

Dear TNK,

An email to thank you for your service and for a great tour of the Mekong Delta.

I am a tour leader with 10 years experience in South East Asia, I can say honestly that your operations management and performance are excellent. Your guides are great and personable even with the massive turn-arounds throughout the tour. I was very impressed.

I hadn't booked with your organisation and randomly chose Brothers. When we switched buses at the Bonsai display place Ms Nhi became our chaperone and guide. She is a great asset to your company and was able to manage the chaos in the travellers minds easily, pleasantly assertive and welcoming. Ms Nhi is extremely competent.

I hope that with the inevitable economic pressures descending on us at this time that TNK can hold their prices. Everyone I spoke to on the tour commented on the value for money and the efficiency of movement.

Well done TNK and certainly Miss Nhi.

Yours gratefully,

Peter Cochrane

Sascha
trip to Vietnam with TNK

Me and my wife were looking for accomodation and some trips around Ho Chi Min, Mui Ne and Me Kon River.

We are currently in China and it was quite dificult to arrange everything from Shanghai. So I searched the web and found TNK. Those guys replied inmediately with detailed plan for Vietnam round trip and very good prices.

You always have doubts when you contact people you don't know. You never know if they are going to give you what they promise or not. But with TNK it went all good from the begining. They answerd all my emails with questions about the country and the trip. And once we arrived there they delivered an outstanding service. We got everything we asked for.

We were picked up, and were driven everywhere in a personal car with A/C which was very pleaseing in a hot place like Vietnam.

I will hardly recomend TNK to travel around Vietnam. You will be in good hands! It certainly takes all troubles involving the trip away.

Laoura Pappas
Travel Experience

Hello!!! I had great time visiting Chau Doc. Great people specially loved the food like the time i was in Rhodes.....!!!!

Kisses laoura

Waltraud Pokorny
Dear Ms Nhu, Operation Department

My best greetings to you. In May 2007 I came with my husband to visit your lovely country. We very much enjoyed staying at Sasco Blue Lagoon Resort/Phu Quoc and Windsor Plaza Hotel/HCM-City, where we met your nice Tour Operator, Miss Dinh Thi Ngoc Phung. Here we spent a very interesting time while visiting a part of the beautiful Vietnam and also Blue Lagoon was excellent for relaxing. Thank you very much for everything it was perfect.

Howard & Paula Myers
Month of Bliss
The month long individualized tour in Vietnam was amazing. Instead of describing the details which were attended to with perfection, we must commend TNK for every aspect of this trip. Every day was a new and exciting experience. Suggestions that were made by TNK to modify our itinerary were fabulous additions. Trust them. Every connection, every hotel, every boatride, every flight, went off without a single glitch. I would recommend them without hesitation.